Heads Up: Burger King’s mouldy Whopper increased sales and is Oslo even a city?
Heads Up is a weekly creative digest that encourages animal advocates to take inspiration from case studies of creative campaign tactics outside of our movement.
Special thanks to Annie Evans, Lúcia Gomes Pereira and Ula Zarosa for reviewing this edition and offering feedback prior to release.
This first edition features two case studies from brands straying from contextual norms in their respective markets by showing you the opposite of what you typically expect. They leverage the Von Restorff effect; being different stands out.
Burger King
The Brief: Burger King removed 8,500 tonnes of artificial preservatives from its products worldwide. The brief was to tell this story to the world.
You would typically expect images of healthy ingredients or colourful, over-edited images of delicious looking food to tell this simple story. Cue Von Restorff.
The Campaign: The Mouldy Whopper campaign was launched by Burger King in February 2020. It included a series of print, TV, and digital ads that featured close-up images of Whoppers rotting over 35 days making the point that the burger contained no artificial preservatives.
Stats: Despite opposing marketing norms The Mouldy Whopper campaign was a resounding success. It generated over 2 billion impressions and helped to boost Burger King’s sales by 4% with $40 million in Earned Media Value, and an 88% uplift in positive brand sentiment. The campaign also won a number of awards, including the Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.
Why does it stand out?
➡ ️ Addresses a legitimate consumer concern
➡ ️Deliberately shocking and attention-grabbing imagery
➡ ️Clever language that has a sense of humour
➡ ️A short and clear message: “The beauty of no artificial preservatives”
This campaign has been widely discussed due to the brand sacrificing existing positive associations with their food and their consumers which is certainly a risk. But was it worth it?
Is Oslo even a city?
The Brief: The Oslo Tourism Board wanted to make a digital tourism advert to encourage tourists to visit the capital city of Oslo, Norway.
The Campaign: [Watch this] > Campaign Ad
The tourism video launched in June 2024 and is a sarcastic take on a typical tourism video with a solo man delivering deadpan ‘criticisms’ of the city during slow and simple cinematography.
Stats: The deadpan ad has received over 2 million views in the first week since launch classing it as having gone ‘viral’ with viewers praising the “unadorned” “point and shoot approach” that uses dry Nordic humour to promote Oslo.
Why does it stand out?
➡ ️ Addresses common tourist concerns
➡ ️ Delivering positive information as though it is a criticism
➡ ️ Deadpan, humorous delivery
➡ ️A short and clear message: “Don’t Visit Oslo”
This video is the opposite of the typical dramatic, cinematic tourism advert consumers are used to seeing containing endless praise for the country or city it is encouraging you to visit.
They use clear and clever humour throughout, opening with “I wouldn’t come here to be honest”. Even the subject line “Is it even a city?” provokes a response from the viewer and an intrigue to view the video.
Now it’s your turn…
Heads Up Challenge: Think opposites
(Copy the below into a working document that you can use for the challenge each week)
1. Write down three alternative ideas for the Burger King brief.
The Brief: Burger King removed 8,500 tonnes of artificial preservatives from it’s products worldwide. The brief was to tell this story to the world.
Idea 1:
Idea 2:
Idea 3:
2. Identify a brief for your own work. Write down three opposite ideas to your standard communications on this topic.
[for example]
The Brief: Our organisation wants people to witness the atrocities of animal suffering to insight action.
Idea 1: Don’t use imagery. Create a billboard ad using only text and to describe the conditions of animals in factory farms in a long and very descriptive way like an audio descriptor. A strong message at the end.
“We’ve seen it so you don’t have to.”
[your turn]
The Brief:
Idea 1:
Idea 2:
Idea 3:
Set aside a 15 minute slot to complete these weekly creative tasks and why not schedule a call with others on your team to talk through your thoughts on this topic and share ideas for you to try out?
Heads Up is a weekly creative digest that encourages animal advocates to take inspiration from case studies of creative campaign tactics outside of our movement.
> ~ 5 minutes read-time (but hopefully gets you thinking for longer than that)
> Demonstrates interesting tactics and use of biases that you can test
> Contains a creative challenge for you to explore independently or with your team with results that you can apply for your important campaigning work
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